“It’s raining,” Seohyun muttered to herself staring through the glass wall beside her. For a moment, she imagined herself holding a warm cup of tea in one hand and a book in the other. 

"On a rainy night like this, you can do so much better than to wait out for a late blind date, Seo Juhyun," she thinks to herself. 

Fifteen minutes later, her awaited so-called date arrived without even an apology, but instead, he gave her a lousy excuse that a client invited him for dinner. 

To make matters worse, the man couldn’t stop blabbering about how successful he was in the field of politics and blah, blah, blah—all about himself. 

And then, there came a point of the night where her patience had reached its limit and the jerk had crossed the line.

“To be frank with you, Miss Seo. The only reason why I agreed to meet with you was because of business matters. You see, your father and I—” 

Seohyun cut him off then. That was it. No matter how much she loves her father, she couldn’t stand a second longer listening to this obnoxious man sitting across belittling her character like this. She let out a smirk and glared at him. “My father clearly misjudged your intelligence and your personality, Mr. Cho. I’m not interested in you or in whatever business you have with my father. I’m here because I didn’t want to turn down my father’s request just like you and definitely not because I’m looking for ‘the one’—not at all. In fact, I assure you that I’ll take responsibility and tell my father you’re definitely not the one,” she stressed before continuing. It seemed as of now there were already a few eyes drawn towards their table. “Also, you might not have been informed but,” she pauses, feeling intensely furious and now fully aware that everyone was now looking at them. “I actually have a boyfriend and…” 

She trails off, her gaze frantically searching for God knows what, until she spotted a decently-looking stranger walking towards them with the most attractive smile she’d ever seen. 

“As a matter of fact, he’s right there…” She raised her finger and pointed at the man walking towards them.

Without second thoughts, her mind took a desperate turn, and the next thing she knew, she was already walking towards the stranger with a grin plastered on her face as if she’d known him since forever. Strangely, the man didn’t seem too fazed about her awkward and obviously weird actions. They were very much estranged from each other after all. 

Every step felt like someone was pulling her backward, but she managed to drag her whole being without collapsing on her knees. Finally, she stopped abruptly in front of him. Her breath and heart seemed to have been caught in as she stopped a second and took a closer at him. God, he has such nice eyes, she noted and then snapped back to reality. 

Her eyes immediately turned to plead and she almost raised both of her hands and clasped them together before she spoke, but fortunately, she managed not to. “I know you don’t know me and I don’t know you but… I really need your help!” she pleaded. “I— 'm desperate. I’m trying to get that obnoxious man off my back and I’m in dire need of someone to pretend to be my, uh, um, b-boyfriend. I know this is so sudden and strange but... but w-would you…please help me out?” She gave her most pitiful face with her eyes round, brows knitted together, lips pouting, and all that she thought might help to convince this man.

It took exactly five seconds, according to her own counting, before the stranger smiled an uneasy smile and said, “Uh, I-I um, o-o—kay. My name is—“

She cut him off immediately without really thinking and took a 180 degree turn to his side and slid her arms around his, so that they were standing side by side, arms linked together. 

Her heart pounded in her chest so hard that her breathing started to hitch. Their skin haven’t even touched because of the fabric they were wearing, but her skin burned underneath with the contact. 

Finally, she took a deep breath, put on her best I’m-not-your--you-jerk face, and pulled the stranger with her to face her horrible, arrogant date. And the rest was history. 

Basically, she won the battle. And yes, her father might swallow her whole when he finds out whatever happened to her date tonight, but at the very least, she kept her pride untouched. 

At the end of the night though, the only thing she regretted was forgetting to ask the stranger’s name. 

Seo Juhyun is not usually someone who lost control of things, of situations, especially when it comes to herself. She liked to think things through, be organized, and preferred to have solid plans beforehand. She was the kind who prepared, took control, and did things thoroughly, almost up to perfection.

In other words, being impulsive isn’t listed in her vocabulary.  

So, imagine when she finds herself standing in front of a stranger’s door, with the intention of possibly humiliating herself and to the point she felt like another soul has taken over her body. 

To make the matter worse, she felt desperate—definitely not her forte, to be honest. Her palms were sweating and her insides felt like they were getting squeezed, to the point that she couldn’t properly breathe. She just felt utte